Mixers Are the Flagships of Artisan Bakers
Since the market is constantly demanding more innovational baking products which present processing challenges, mixer suppliers have to answer the industry’s demands with more sophisticated, energy saving, efficient and flexible equipment.
Modern mixers have vast variety of mixing options that can reduce the costs of overall production. For example, many of them feature a hygienic design, so the time to get the mixer prepared for another product is reduced. Easier cleaning also means less human labor and cleaning chemicals, which affects the price of final product. Higher mixer flexibility is also what producers need more and more from their equipment. That is why modern mixers can be quickly set to different processes, and mixing is much easier to control.
Process Management
According to VMI‘s Claire Auffredou, the goal is to produce high-hydration dough with reduced mixing timings. “As they need a gentle treatment of dough in order to have the most natural and healthy products, our customers appreciate the very limited increase in dough temperature while mixing – thanks to tools with shape, diameter, and position in the bowl, which have been optimized,” she explains.
For the successful processing of artisan bread, which integrates liquid pre-ferments and sourdoughs, complex process management and hygiene are key. To develop the flavor of the product, its texture and shelf life, the management of the mixing process is essential. “For the past 25 years, VMI has been offering automated mixing systems, and the company continues to improve the automation of our batch mixing solutions to enable a high control of complex processes, for consistency and quality of dough. The VMI linear bowl transfer system completely automates the movement of the bowls from the dosing of the ingredients, mixing, rest time of the dough if required, transfer of the final dough to the downstream processing equipment and CIP cleaning station for the bowl as well,” the company’s representative points out.
Julia Kneidinger, Koenig‘s marketing manager says it is a crucial decision which mixer is used for which kinds of doughs. With the company’s twin twist mixer, the water absorption tends to be faster at the beginning of the mixing process than with the spiral mixer and a slightly higher water absorption can be achieved and thus a higher dough yield.
You can read the rest of this article in the Summer Issue of World Bakers Digital magazine, which you can access by clicking here.